"The Cather in the Rye" Question 7

J.D. Salinger had very unique writing techniques for his time. The reason? He stayed in character, if you will, for the entire novel. He wasn't only a stuck up adolescent in dialogue but he used the same language and writing even when writing about Holden's thoughts and feelings. For example, when he constantly calls EVERYTHING phony. That is us seeing right into this characters head. The author doesn't ever leave and write just as the author. He is always the first person narrator, always playing the part of Holden. I find this very intriguing and not many authors that I have read do that, especially for the required books in English class. I think another technique that the author uses is Holden's cynicalness and over all hypocriticalness. To be blunt, Holden is the biggest hypocrite the world has ever possibly contemplated. He consistently calls everyone and everything a 'phony' but he himself is the biggest phony of them all. For me, I found this character interesting. He's almost like that bad-boy that you know is bad for you but still entices you no less. Okay. That was a bad example. He annoyed the jazz out of me, but at the same time I was still kind of rooting for him to win. To win what? I'm not really sure, but despite the fact he was a very irritating character, the author made him the perfect balance of annoying and annoying for a reason to make me want to see and hear more about him. Holden was a very typical character, kicked out of school, judgmental annoying teenager, obsessed with alcohol and getting girls, but at the same time he had some very interesting quirks. He failed all his classes EXCEPT English, he can't stand anyone except his little sister Phoebe and Jane Gallagher yet he continually reaches out to people hoping maybe this time will be different. He was obsessed with Jane Gallagher but we never see her first hand, only memories of her that Holden shares with us. He was a quirky character and that overshadowed all of his annoying traits and made me want to hear more about him.



Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and, 1991. Print.